With the 2026 match just a few months away, we take a look back at the first Women’s PGA Cup back in 2019, when Scotland’s Heather MacRae was among the trailblazers for GB&I
The Women’s PGA Cup is still in its relative infancy but Heather MacRae, who is preparing to captain the GB&I team later this year, is in the enviable position of having played on all three GB&I teams to date.
The inaugural competition took place in 2019 at the Barton Creek Resort in Austin, Texas and, unsurprisingly, the American hosts came out on top, though only by four strokes from Canada, while GB&I would finish in third, followed by Australia and Sweden.
Also on the GB&I team were Ali Gray, Hazel Kavanagh, Suzanne Dickens and Maria Tulley, with Tracey Loveys the captain.
MacRae's place on the team was remarkable for the fact that she won the Women's PGA Professional Championship for the second of now four occasions having been diagnosed with cervical cancer earlier that year.
Indeed, just weeks after winning, she would undergo further invasive surgery to combat the disease.
"They announced that the Women's PGA Cup was going to happen in 2018. I had finished playing on Tour by that point so it was definitely my goal to qualify for it in 2019. Then I wasn't well with the cancer so the first PGA Cup will always have a special place in my heart as it was such a big goal to be on that team,” she said.
MacRae won the Women’s PGA Championship two weeks before undergoing surgery. It earned her a place on the team – and then gave her a focal point for her recovery with the match fast approaching.
“With it being the first one we didn't really know what it was going to be like. I went over for the men's PGA Cup with my good friend Craig Lee. That was at the same place three weeks before. So it was good to see the course and resort beforehand.”
Pictured: The 2019 PGA Cup GB&I team: Heather MacRae, Suzanne Dickens, Tracy Loveys (Captain), Maria Tulley, Hazel Kavanagh and Alison Gray
MacRae knew many of her fellow competitors from her amateur, college and tour days. “Everyone was just so excited to be there,” she said. “The strangest aspect was that, because there were five countries, we played in fiveballs. So we played in carts and I clearly remember being out first on the opening day and all five of us were just shaking with nerves because it was just such a big thing.
“I had a conversation with the Aussie girl going down the 1st and we admitted that we were both very jittery. We got onto the green and there were just ball markers everywhere and everyone had to keep moving them. The course was difficult and it took a long time to get round but it was such a good experience.”
At Women’s PGA Cups and PGA Cups alike, the camaraderie often lasts long beyond the week of the event for the players.
“The players' lounge was amazing and all the teams mixed and socialised together,” said MacRae. “We made some really good new friendships and strengthened the ones that we already had.
“I like the format (three scores to count from the five players) because you just don't ever give up and every shot counts. You can watch the leaderboard but it can change by three or four shots in a second, just depending on if someone makes a birdie and gets into the qualifying score or someone makes a double and drops out of it.
“It's not too different to how I would play anyway. You definitely can't get down because you've dropped some shots as you just don't know what any of your other team-mates are doing. That's a nice thing as you're behind your team-mates on every shot and cheering on every putt which doesn't happen every other week,” she said.
“I clearly remember being out first on the opening day and all five of us were just shaking with nerves because it was just such a big thing” - Heather MacRae
There was a tragic element to the match though.
“I played with one of the American girls, Brittany Kelly. We just clicked and got on so well and she knew what I'd just been through. I think the first year she was the low scorer out of all the teams.
“Then two months later she messaged me as she'd found out that she had ovarian cancer – and she would pass away the following year. It was just awful and when the second Women's PGA Cup took place, it was like something was missing because she was just this loud, bubbly, happy, smiley character.
“The Americans tend to want to do their own thing some of the time but she just brought all their team to us and everyone mixed more. And now she wasn't there,” said MacRae.
Kelly’s memory is now honoured at each Women’s PGA Cup.
“They now have the Brittany Kelly Award, which they give out for the low scorer of the whole event and they all have ‘BK’ on their hats,”
MacRae has round the event to be inspiring on many levels.
“The Women's PGA Cup is a really unique experience. I was probably a little tired because I hadn't been practising or playing in that first year but I was also just on a high because I was there. Afterwards it was a bit weird because, as a golfer, you always set yourself a goal that's a bit out of reach and that was the only thing that I wanted to do that year.
“Since then I've just wanted to do it again and again, which so far I've managed," she said.
